Local residents are not advised to go out in the dark to avoid
coming face to face with predators looking for food ahead of
winter sleep.

Three people have been killed by bears in Kamchatka this year,
while Chukotka residents currently live in fear of a polar bear
attack.

Except in dire emergencies, shooting polar bears - protected
under the Red List and known for their enormous physical power -
is prohibited.

Forty-three predators have gathered together near the village of
Ryrkaypy, according to WWF Russia. Polar bears were spotted near
the remains of two dead whales, washed onto the beaches several
kilometers away from the Chukotka settlement.

"The last time a large number of polar bears gathered in one
place was discovered on the Arctic coast of Chukotka in the fall
of 2006," head of the Polar Bear Patrol WWF project Viktor
Nikiforov said.

"The south wind has torn the ice off the coast, opening it to
the sea. Some of the bears left over the ice, but many of them
are still there, near the whales. Our patrol is on guard near the
school area in the mornings, twice a day making a tour around the
surrounding villages, controlling the situation," he added.

The bears have already appeared on the outskirts of the
community, several hundred kilometers east of Billings. Members
of the WWF Polar Bear Patrol team fear they could now head to the
village dump, posing a serious threat to the locals.

Both Billings and Ryrkaypy villages are located on traditional
bear winter migration routes. Therefore the predators' visit to
these settlements was next to inevitable.

Flyers with a warning about the danger have been posted around
the settlement and a curfew after dark announced.

Residents have been advised not to move around the settlement
alone in the dark, and by no means throw away leftover foods near
their houses.

In summer a brown bear looking for food in one Kamchatka village
climbed right into a dumpster, where he finally quenched his
appetite.

In another recent incident a bear chased several people up a tree
and ate the berries they had gathered. Luckily, nobody was hurt.

Unlike brown bears that often maul a person and leave, polar bear
attacks are more likely to be fatal. Hungry predators are said to
be stealthy hunters, fearless of humans.

To protect people from danger, a former aircraft storage hangar
outside the northern town of Churchill, in Canada, has been
turned into the world’s only prison for polar bears.

The problem is, the number of polar bears passing through the
remote area each autumn outnumbers the town's entire population
of 800 humans. Up to 20 bears a day can reportedly be spotted
around the town. The predators can't help passing Churchill just
because it sits in the middle of their winter migration route.